damned_institute | Day 29: Sun Room

It was with some relief that Yuuhi awoke the next morning, in his own bed, sore and tired and achy. He would've slept more had they let him, his face down in the pillow, away from all the others and their questions and their concern. He didn't want to see them, but he managed a little smile when the nurse came in and didn't object when she lead him out into the open hallway that had been splattered with blood, plenty of it his, just last night.

The Chapel or the Sun Room? He felt he had good reason not to be terribly religious and had a feeling he wouldn't be very welcome there anyway. The Sun Room would be nice though. It was bright and cheery and he could always doodle or write notes on the community board if he'd nothing better to do. Besides, the nurse was kind enough to let him take a book with him.

He found a seat on one of the couches, far from the entrance and seated himself in the far corner, legs scrunched up against his chest so he only took up one of the cushions. He opened up where he'd left off, fingers carefully turning the worn pages of Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz.

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"Exactly what it sounds like," Kenren replied sharply. "He's not here anymore. Gone, whatever happens to the people in this place who disappear."

It had to be disappeared, because he couldn't be dead. He refused to accept that he could have died without himself noticing it. No, he was just gone. Maybe back in his world where he belongd, with the rest of them, with Gojyo.

So was this what Goku faced before? Hakkai had dissappeared earlier, then reappeared, but the monkey didn't even seem to remember that after he'd vanished himself. What the fuck....?

Sanzo didn't say anything at first. This shit was getting tiring, and all in all, he was pretty sick of the games from Landels.

"This happened with Goku too: the chimp's suddenly gone for nearly two weeks, then shows up out of nowhere," the monk pointed out. He shrugged. "But there's no guarantee that's what happened here."

Sanzo didn't believe in sugar-coating what could be a harsh truth: Hakkai could just as likely been killed during the previous shift. The man was one of the most capable fighters he'd ever seen, but shit happened regardless.

They'd all known that there was a chance someone would die on the journey West, but somehow the priest didn't think that included a place like this.

He was almost tempted to shout, try to force some reaction from the monk (and dammit, why'd he have to be so impassive? Konzen had been way easier to read), but being calm would work much better, he was sure. He didn't want to lose his already tenuous grip on his control.

"If he'd died, then I'd have known," Kenren replied coolly. That was what Sanzo was implying at least. But if Hakkai had been there, if he'd been injured so badly, then Kenren would have known. Gojyo would have known. Between the two of them, some sense would have been able to tell, he was sure of it. "He's just vanished."

Would you?" With Landels dampening everything, it was a relatively valid question. And that wasn't even going into the lack of weapons or their fighting abilites being screwed over as they were.

Sanzo had only been able to sense Goku when he'd entered the same room - and that was if Kenren and Hakkai even shared the same bond, something that the monk found somewhat hard to believe. One, the time they'd met and spent together wasn't exactly the years that the roach had on Hakkai (even if Kenren practically reeked of Gojyo mannerisms), and two, well... Sanzo might've had the bad luck to gotten saddled with a bottomless pit of a brat, but then again, looking at Gojyo, the monk happened to dodge a bullet there. He couldn't understand why Hakkai would want to submit to round two of that.

There always wasn't any telling if he'd be able to know if the dumbass monkey was ever injured or killed here outside of that distance. How could Kenren be so sure?

"If you're so sure he's not dead, then what? Do you even have any idea where to start looking? Or are you going to settle with just knowing he's gone?"

At least doctor that one night had hinted Goku was still within the building somewhere.

"We found each other the first night I was here," Kenren replied seriously. "And when the doctors had me, I bet you weren't intending to head up to that particular corridor." he sighed, running a hand through his hair and then touching just above the one red eye. "Or if it makes it any more believeable, Gojyo would know. The first time you met, when Hakkai had run off, Gojyo knew he was in danger. Yeah, I'd know." At least, he really really hoped so. He just knew that Hakkai wasn't here anymore.

He gave Sanzo a flat look. "I'm going to find him. I'll enjoy tearing this place apart. I won't let him die again."

"No, I wasn't. You aren't exactly high on my priorities," Sanzo replied. He didn't usually make it a habit to go rescuing people who got themselves into their own form of deep shit, but Hakkai had a way of making things difficult when he was dead set on something. It wasn't obnoxious or even obvious like the other two, but it was usually far more effective.

It was still damned distracting how Kenren kept speaking as if he and Gojyo were nearly one and the same now. The monk couldn't even begin to guess what happened behind those closed doors, nights ago, but whatever it was, it was drastically different than his "interrogation".

And what happened when they first met? That was something only the four of them had been privy to; normally there wasn't any way in hell that a stranger would know about them. And it wasn't too widely known that Gonou had died (in a fashion), but somehow Sanzo got the feeling that wasn't what the other man was talking about.

Sanzo scowled. He was going to regret this...

"Fine. We'll both look," he said. "But if this interferes with finding the sutra, I will kill your sorry ass myself for wasting my time."

Kenren snorted, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I figured. He's always been the one to deal with me." He wasn't even sure himself which one he was talking about anymore. Did it matter? Was there a difference? Seemed that the more he remembered of Gojyo's life, the worse it got. Heh, that had probably been their intention. Maybe. Who knew what those psychos were wanting to see?

A relieved look appeared on his face when Sanzo agreed. "Thanks. I can't let this go so easily. Too much history for me to accept it." And it suddenly seemed so much more important to not let it happen again.

Day 29: Sun Room

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